Monday, 7 February 2011

Victorian Orphan Chic

The last few days have been hugely windy. Great gusts throw whirling leaves and birds into the heavy sky, and stray fragments of wind whistle down the chimney and moan in my hearthplace. A perfect night, in short, to imagine myself as a Victorian orphan in an attic.

I've always loved the Victorian period for styling and verging-on-the-sentimental drama, full of girls bereft at an early age who only manage to pull through due to an overactive imagination and innate sense of right and wrong. In London, it's even easier to identify with these past heroines, as I walk past rows of Georgian houses with the top windows overlooking the sparrows among the chimney pots.

What is Victorian Orphan chic? A hungry look, a pale complexion, a too-short but well made dress from days before poverty struck, and a borrowed book for keeping oneself educated. : )My two favourite Victorian orphan heroines are Emily (of course) from Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery and Sara Crewe from Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess.

I fancy I have their same roving imaginations, curiosity for all kinds of books, and Emily's literary leanings... unlike Sara though, I have no attic rat to make friends with, since the pest control man took care of our resident mice earlier this week.

Goodnight!

P.S. If you only know A Little Princess through the abominable film version, don't let that turn you off. A classic example of a bad American remake. No offense to any Americans, but why does Hollywood have to take other cultures' literary and cinematic treasures, and remake them boring and bad, with a miscast American star? On the other hand, there's no excuse for the awful Canadian TV adaptation of the Emily books. It's our own cultural heritage we were destroying there...

velvet dress: vintagelace: fabric shopshoes: Camper (they are really comfy, to the person who wanted to know before, and I believe they're available in the States...)rings: Whitby and Grannie

58 comments:

Oh it's the velvet dress again :) I only wore mine once and left it at my dad's :|I love these "vintage" pictures, messing with picnik were you? ;) The first thing i thought was not Victorian though, it was actually of "Wednesday Adams, and please take it as a compliment! I adore the way she dresses, I actually dressed as Wednesday for "Carnaval" one year in middle school haha, too bad I don't have pictures of it...

I shouldn't probably confess this, but I haven't read either of those books, and do not worry because I haven't seen any American films either haha.

@Raquel: Well, I think Wednesday Adams is a Victorian orphan at heart! And you're allowed not to have read them... you're Portuguese! I can't think of a single Portuguese book that I have read.... ; ) For that matter, now I'm trying to think if I've seen any Portuguese films... ... ...

So, I made it through season 3 of Emily of New Moon and not without laughing through most of it. In fact, I even felt embarrassed watching it. Why it was ever butchered so is beyond my comprehension. Other than liking the setting and the lore of yesteryear, I'm finished giving it any more chances. Just think of how appalled Lucy Maud Montgomery would be.

Oh! Fashion inspiration in unlikely places...I love it :) These are very compelling pictures, your hair looks very cute! I love both of those books! And I did like the Little Princess film but maybe because I was 10 the last time I watched it and I loved the hair ribbons and flouncy frocks!

Oh maybe you heard of the film "Blindness"? It is an American adaptation of a Portuguese Nobel prize of Literature winner book, José Saramago, with the same name in English but the original being "Ensaio sobra a cegueira". I could recommend more but I'll leave it for when I meet you in London ;) About Portuguese films, not much that I like either, probably none, or at least that I can remember right now.

Gah, I love this post! Your photos and outfit definitely capture the Victorian orphan mystique (I looooove the dress, especially). A Little Princess is my all-time favorite book; my copy is in extremely well-loved tatters. I actually like the 90s film version; it's not at all faithful to the book, but something about it just gets to me. If I keep it in a separate compartment in my brain from the book, it ends up being okay. The Shirley Temple version was flippin' awful, though!

Haha I had to do a double-take when I saw the title of this post. A bit unusual! But you pull off this look beautifully!

I also love the Victorian era (heck, I am writing a doctorate on that time), but I find it really hard to interpret into fashion without feeling completely overdressed, weighed down and silly. I think you've done really well here! Perhaps the shot is to take inspiration from less structured children's clothes? :)

You look amazing, these photos are so good. I thought they were old photographs before I recognised that it as actually you haha!I completely agree with you. I don't understand why people have to re-make films over & over, it ruins them, especially ones originating from books.Rebecca xwww.rebeccas-vintage-romance.blogspot.com

@Raquel: Oh, actually, I did read Blindness, I completely forgot. Although obviously I read it in English, and it was such a depressing book that I forgot it again afterwards. ; D

@Alicia: The best version I've seen of A Little Princess is a BBC TV one from the 90s I think. It used to be available in my local library. It was really faithful and the girl who played Sara was great!

wow i think these are my favorite photos you have posted..is that weird? A Little Princess is such a great book, much better than the movie but I tend to think that way about most book-to film adaptations

You look stunning in these photos... I love the lighting and will add those books to my cue. Yes, I'm American and I have to admit that many American adaptations are sucky. I find myself watching foreign films quite often. Happy Monday!

Love this shoot! so fun :DYes...my roommate made me suffer through the Little Princess movie..haha...bad bad XD(and yes...I don't get why we insist on making bad movie adaptions of books....though Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter as well as a few others should be excluded from the bad ones, haha)http://aclosetfashionista.blogspot.com/

What a mood this invokes! The little lace bowtie, the buttons on the cuff. I've not read either of these books and take no national responsibility for the variety of ways our filmmakers butcher perfect good books.

the little princess is my childhood favourite book! love the remake of the utmost accuracy I might add! the humility of this simple ensemble is beautiufl. the dress is lovely and the the bow tie a cute fixture.

MATILDA is the worst rendition of a book ever! She's not supposed to keep her powers at the end! Gahhhh it shows how love makes you special thus you no longer have need for powers and this huge beautiful metaphor and gahhhhhh..!!!!

Word sputtering aside, you look stunning in the photos & I envy that dress!

I adore your inspiration and the way you put it into an outfit :) and yes, the movie version of the little princess is sort of really corny, but the story is still so strong so it doesn't suck TOO bad :D

great photos--you've definitely captured the creepy victorian spirit. i must admit i never identified much with said spirit. i always pictured those houses as big and dark and cold and full of secrets and strange debilitating illnesses. not even gothic, just... sickly or something. i read a little princess when i was younger but i have little recollection of it. another book that comes to mind (with a terrible film adaptation attached) is the secret garden.

The emily of new moon books are AWESOMEEE! I actually love the film versions of a Little Princess (are you talking about the Shirley Temple one or the one from the 90's?).Your pictures are gorgeous, you look like you could be Emily.

I bawled like a baby reading A Little Princess. I much preferred A Secret Garden. I felt like Frances Burnett celebrated childhood more in that book than A Little Princess. Thanks for your comment on my blog. Its great to know your thoughts on fashion blogging!

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I've spent my twenties as a nomad in Scotland, Catalonia, Mexico, South Africa, England and my native Canada, trying to make one suitcase (and a much-too-heavy carry-on bag) stretch as far as they can. The search continues for the magical ruby slippers, but here are the journeys without them so far. Email me at rubyslipperjourneys(at)gmail(dot)com